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Evercore, the US corporate finance boutique that opened a dedicated European office last year, has won its first advisory mandate in Hungary.

The boutique bank is advising Hungarian pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter on its $1.3bn (€908m) acquisition of Polish rival Polpharma. The deal will create the largest pharmaceutical player in the region with a market capitalization of $5.35bn.

Evercore set up a London office in August last year to capitalize on buoyant merger and acquisition conditions in Europe. The division was launched after the acquisition of Braveheart Financial Services, which Evercore acquired for $50m from former JP Morgan bankers Bernard Taylor and Julian Oakley.

Taylor and Oakley have since increased Evercore Europe's dealmaking staff to 20. In September, the pair hired Edward Banks and Ian Ferguson, former colleagues of theirs at JP Morgan, as senior managing directors.

Taylor said there would be no further additions to the team this year.

In September, Evercore advised on the $4.5bn acquisition of German chemicals company Scwharz Pharma by rival UCB of Belgium.

The bank has also advised on US conglomerate General Electric's $4.8bn purchase of the UK's Smiths Aerospace and German-Swiss derivatives market Eurex's $2.8bn acquisition of the International Securities Exchange.